Poland’s unemployment rate is the second lowest in the European Union as employment across the bloc last year reached a record high of 74.6 percent, according to a recent report.
A regional breakdown of employment rates across Europe by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, revealed that the highest employment rate in the bloc was in the Finnish archipelago of the Aland Islands, with 89.7 percent of working-age people employed.
The second-highest was recorded in the Polish capital of Warsaw, with 85.4 percent, while the Dutch city of Utrecht and Sweden’s capital of Stockholm both came third with 85.1 percent.
Over two-fifths of all European regions (102 out of 242) had an employment rate of 78 percent. These regions were concentrated in Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Malta, the Netherlands and Sweden.
At the other end of the scale, three Italian regions had employment rates below 50 percent: Sicily (46.2 percent), Calabria (47 percent) and Campania (47.3 percent).
Poland’s employment rate was recorded at 76.7 percent, comfortably above the EU average of 74.6 percent.
Only three Polish regions were below the bloc’s average: the Podkarpacie region in the southeast (68.7 percent), northeastern Warmińsko-Mazurskie (73.6 percent), and southern Małopolskie (73.9 percent).
The rate of employment in Poland’s most industrialized region of Silesia was exactly the EU average of 74.6 percent.
The central Mazovia region, excluding Warsaw showed an employment rate of 76.2 percent.
